Liam Hogan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Liam_Hogan.jpg Liam Stephen Hogan (May 30th 2000 - August 15th 2006) was a boy from Bradley Stoke, Bristol who was murdered by his father whilst on holiday in Ierapetra in Crete.[1] While on Holiday, Liam's parents ended up in an argument and that argument led Liam's father, John, to throwing him off their hotel balcony before jumping off with his 2 year old sister Mia. Liam died from severe head injuries but his father survived with a broken arm, broken leg and chest injuries and his sister survived with a broken arm. Liam's funeral was held on 29th August, two weeks after the incident. In September 2006, a remembrance was held at his school. Background Liam Stephen Hogan was born on 30th May 2000 in Southmead hospital - his middle name given in memory of a wayward uncle who never grew up. Liam’s father John came from a troubled family. John and his brothers and sisters grew up in Bedminster. When John was 16, his father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He died on 13th February 1996. John Hogan and Natasha Steel, as she was then known, got engaged in April of that year. She moved in to live with John and his family. John has a family history of depression. He had been to see the family doctor and was now on a course of anti-depressants, while John’s brother Stephen, who had already lost his father and saw little of his mother, became resentful at losing John to an outsider like Natasha. On the last weekend of June 1996, Natasha had discovered Stephen’s body in his bedroom. He died from an overdose of painkillers and alcohol. An inquest generously ruled Stephen's death as “accidental”. John and Natasha had split up after she was told to leave John’s family house when Stephen died. Hogan later told his psychiatrist that he never got over his brother's death. In October 1998, John and Natasha bumped into each other in the Mandrake nightclub in Bristol city centre. Natasha thought he had recovered and the got back together. They bought a house in Bradley Stoke and within months Natasha was pregnant with Liam. John began to reel again. He would run back to Bedminster and get drunk all the time. He became incapable of eating in public. He developed agoraphobia, collapsing in Asda, suffering from panic attacks so frequent and violent that he was prescribed beta-blockers and counselling - sessions from which Natasha was precluded and about which Hogan never spoke. When Liam was born John appeared to get back on track and realised he could make a good first time dad. Within two years, John and Natasha got married. Mia Louise Hogan was born on 27th April 2004. The family relationship seemed fine. John would not go shooting off to the pub anymore and seemed attentive and totally different. A few weeks later, John’s house in Bedminster was on fire. John’s brother Paul had burnt it down. After the fire was extinguished, the police began looking for Paul. It was later discovered that Paul had then jumped off the Clifton suspension bridge. It was the death of John’s father and suicides of his brothers that are believed to have contributed to his actions when he murdered his son Liam. The Incident John and Natasha were going through problems with their marriage. One day John had discovered some flirtatious emails exchanged between Natasha and an old school friend of hers. Natasha had also been looking into divorce on the internet. John was feeling emotional stress at the prospect of distancing and separating from loved ones. He has a great need to express his feelings and especially feelings of love, but an even greater need for others to express their feelings towards him. To help ease their marriage they booked a holiday in Crete. They arrived at the hotel on 11th August. Although they had booked a ground-floor, pool-side apartment, they were shown to room 446, on the top floor, over the hotel entrance and facing a busy main road. Spotting the balcony, Natasha was immediately worried about their children's safety. John had spent the fourth day of the holiday on his own, turning inwards, as his family had always done, returning only at 4pm, to challenge Natasha as to whether she had made a decision about leaving him. The argument had started later that evening. John had shouted to Natasha, “If you think you're living in that house with the kids ... you're not, I'll burn it to the ground." The argument kept going and John wanted to leave and go home. The next plane had only three seats to spare and Natasha said that she was going to use those three seats but leave John there. They kept arguing at the hotel bar. When they got back to their room, John had started packing the suit cases. At this point, Liam was getting very upset and cried to Natasha “You’re splitting up!” Natasha had a little talk with Liam while John packed the suitcases. Natasha stopped to have a look at the state of the suitcases and she thought to herself “These are never going to close. The clothes and everything were just piled in.” She tried to sort the cases out her self and John retaliated to her actions. He started shouting “My packing is f***ing c**p!” He was throwing all the contents of the suitcases all over the room. Liam was screaming at this point because John had frightened him with his actions. While Natasha was clearing up the mess and started packing the suitcases, there was a deadly silence and that was when she had discovered that John had gone over the balcony with Liam and Mia. Natasha had called an ambulance and went down to help her injured children. Within minutes, Liam and Mia had been taken to the nearby hospital. The doctor’s tried all they could to resuscitate Liam but he died shortly after arrival. Liam had suffered multiple head injuries from the fall. John and Mia suffered broken limbs. Funeral Liam's funeral was held on 29th August, 2 weeks after the incident. Floral tributes included an wreath shaped like a Dalek and one shaped like the TARDIS to symbolise Liam being a Doctor Who fan. Liam's mother Natasha wrote a note on some yellow flowers saying: "My Dearest Liam, my "Boo-Boo" You are so special to me and I will love you forever Everything you did, everything you were made mummy so proud. Have lots of fun in Heaven... Until we meet again. Watch over your little sister for me, my angel. Thinking of you every minute! Mummy xxxxxxxx She also said she will always remember Liam as a happy little chap. John Hogan went to his first hearing the day after. School Remembrance In September 2006, when Liam's classmates got back to school from the Summer Holidays they shared memories of him during an assembly and released balloons with messages. Chris Dursley, head of Wheatfield primary school in Bradley Stoke, Bristol, said: "Liam, who would have been in Year 2 at the start of this academic year, was a happy, hard-working, caring and popular child. During assembly the children spoke movingly of their memories of Liam as a very kind and caring classmate and recalled happy times in school." Trial and Inquest Since the incident Liam's Mother Natasha has remarried to one of her work colleagues and is now known as Natasha Visser. Members of the press had suggested that Natasha was having an affair with her new husband Richard Visser whilst still married to John Hogan and that is what probably triggered John to kill Liam and try and kill himself and Mia. In January 2008 John Hogan went on trial for Liam's murder. There were no witnesses brought up apart from John, his wife Natasha, and other family members. John had told the judge and jury that he thought he was taking his children up to Heaven and did not plan to kill them. a psychiatrist claimed that Hogan had been suffering from psychotic illusions and said: "He thought he was taking them children by the hand and walking them to Heaven." Under cross-examination, Natasha, revealed that she has recently remarried, to work colleague Richard Visser, although she retains her former surname. She also admitted she exchanged "flirtatious" emails with an ex-school friend three years before the tragedy but insisted she had remained faithful to her husband. The trial had lasted three days. John was found not guilty and sent to a psychiatric unit. The verdict ruling was due to the jury believing John had suffered an “Earthquake of psychosis” and did not know what he was doing when he killed Liam and almost killed Mia. In March 2008, Natasha ordered a second inquest into Liam's death. Eyewitnesses were called into tell the inquest what they saw. There was later a verdict that Liam Hogan was unlawfully killed. Natasha had demanded for John to be brought back to Britain for a retrial. Natasha had emigrated to Australia in April of that year with her new husband, Richard, and her daughter Mia. John Hogan's Release In early May 2009, John had appealed against the verdict of unlawful killing. The verdict was then quashed because the inquest did not take his psychological welfare into consideration. On 30 May 2009, which would have been Liam's 9th birthday, the news of John's release from the Greek Psychiatric Unit in Athens was released. John Hogan was sent to the Callington Road Hospital in Brislington. It was also revealed that the unlawful killing verdict had been overturned due to his mental state at the time of Liam's death not being addressed during the inquest in 2008. On 20 June 2009, it was reported that Natasha was 24 weeks pregnant with her third child. On 3 October 2009, she gave birth to a baby boy, Ruben Visser. In 2010 John was freed just less than four years after Liam's death. Despite the verdict of unlawful killing, there will be no retrial into the death of Liam Hogan. In November 2011 there was a second inquest that took place and came up with the verdict of "Unlawful killing" a second time. After the verdict, an emotional Elizabeth Chandler, grandmother of Liam and mother of his mum Natasha Visser, said: 'We would like to say we are extremely relieved with the verdict today. 'We believe it is the right verdict to do justice for Liam. 'Had the verdict been anything else it would have demonstrated to us that despite the most horrific way Liam died he never had any human rights of his own. 'When a child is killed by their parent or parents who they wholeheartedly trust it can only be described as a betrayal of trust and most cowardly. 'It has been most gruelling and heartbreaking to have to go through the last events of Liam's life.' Brian Chandler, Natasha's stepfather, said the family would now wait and absorb the verdict before deciding whether to press for charges to be brought against John Hogan. John and Natasha did not attend due to John being declared too ill to attend and Natasha was living in Australia. External References Last Kiss for my Angel Before the fall I feel I'll erupt with anger Wife of Crete hotel plunge father was having an affair Balcony horror mum's new lover Father who threw son from holiday balcony 'thought he was sending his family to Heaven' Boy pushed off Crete hotel balcony was unlawfully killed by his father, coroner rules Balcony dad: I'm innocent? Balcony leap dad out free New date for Hogan Inquest Father who leapt from balcony with his two children 'unlawfully killed his son'